Does Tomb of Annihilation make the Tabaxi tribes of Chult into the Tabaxi race?

Does Tomb make the Tabaxi tribes of Chult into the Tabaxi race? One player is rolling a Tabaxi char, I expect confusion… I think we downplayed that name – looks like it was just a weird coincidence back on the day; in any case, tabaxi as cat people not native